But as the tears dry today, it is worth reflecting on what might Margo's legacy be for Scottish politics in this the year of the independence referendum.

In his emotional address to what must have been 800 people at the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall on the Mound Margo's husband, Jim Sillars told some funny stories about his late wife.

Margo - see I am using just her first name as it's all that is needed - had her own way of opinion polling: listening to Edinburgh's taxi drivers and to her hairdressers.

She operated not on Greenwich Mean Time but Margo time. She loved jewellery and never went out without her makeup on.

But it was what Mr Sillars - a former Labour then SNP MP - said was Margo's message to the assembled politicians that resonated.

To the audience which included SNP First Minister Alex Salmond, and Better Together leader Alistair Darling, as well as a large number of 'ordinary' people, Mr Sillars had some powerful words to convey.

He said Margo knew she would not live to the referendum and to see what she, as a lifelong nationalist, hoped would be a 'Yes' vote.

She also knew that the campaign would be fierce and there would be very strongly expressed views.

But Margo had been thinking about what would happen immediately after the polls closed at 10pm on September 18 this year, Mr Sillars said.

Jim Sillars addresses the memorial service for his wife, Margo MacDonald with a cardboard cut of her from an election campaign behind him Credit: Danny Lawson/PA Wire/Press

At a minute past 10, whatever the result, she wanted those divisions to end and this nation to seek a unity of purpose."

Mr Sillars spoke of his wife as "the brightest light in the Scottish political sky" and that her star would continue to shine for a long time yet.

But given how heated and divisive the debate over independence has already become, it is in everyone's interest that the nationalist and unionist politicians brought together to celebrate Margo's life heed her wise words on post-referendum reconciliation.